


On Blunt Teeth and Names

by Quecksilver_Eyes



Series: On Magic in Auradon [6]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Well - Freeform, and living with humans who throw their names around carelessly is exhausting, fairy godmother is mentioned, jane has wings and sharp teeth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-09
Updated: 2018-04-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 20:53:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14269311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quecksilver_Eyes/pseuds/Quecksilver_Eyes
Summary: Jane walks on eggshell shaped marble floors and ties her clothes tightly around herself, until she can stop breathing in all the names she is offered. “I’m Li Lonnie“, the girl says and Jane can feel the bluntness of her teeth against her tongue and the weight of a full name against her clavicle, offered without a second thought. The girl’s hair frames her face and Jane thinks of what her mother tells her, each night when the glamour drops and she is old and worn and fae again. “Don’t take their words to swallow them, they don’t know what it is they are promising.“or: Jane is offered names without a second thought and she files her teeth until her magic bleeds into her mouth.





	On Blunt Teeth and Names

Jane walks on eggshell shaped marble floors and ties her clothes tightly around herself, until she can stop breathing in all the names she is offered. “I’m Li Lonnie“, the girl says and Jane can feel the bluntness of her teeth against her tongue and the weight of a full name against her clavicle, offered without a second thought. The girl’s hair frames her face and Jane thinks of what her mother tells her, each night when the glamour drops and she is old and worn and fae again. “Don’t take their words to swallow them, they don’t know what it is they are promising.“

Did Cinderella know, she wants to ask, wants to bare her teeth until they aren’t useless and blunt and human anymore. Did she know what you took from her, in return for a dress and a carriage and horses. She doesn’t. Instead, she smiles at her mother, her teeth white and gleaming and filed, her shoulder blades itching. Her mother smiles, too, and the light behind her flickers.

“What’s your name?”, the girl asks, smiles at her and stretches out her hand. Jane bows her head and can feel how her hair covers her ears. She doesn’t say anything.

“I’m Mulan’s daughter”, the girl says and the weight settles heavier against Jane’s skin. “You know, saviour of China? She went to the army disguised as -”

“I know”, Jane says, can feel her teeth bleeding acid on her tongue. “Nice to meet you.”

The girl blinks. “I’m your roommate”, she says and Jane feels as if she might spit out her magic from where it rests in her mouth.

“My roommate?” Her shoulder blades itch.

The girl nods. “Yeah, apparently they need two of the rooms for new arrivals, so they transferred me and Doug. I’m not going to bother you for long, Fairy Godmother says it’s only for a month.”

Jane thinks of rags and balls and step sisters ripping mouse sewn love apart and she bows her head again.

 

* * *

“Carlos, please, can you at least wait until you’re sober?”

“So you can rethink things and go back to hiding behind your hair? No can do.” Carlos grins at her and spins the chair she is sitting on. Jane furrows her brows. He laughs. “I’ve cut my mother’s hair with a concussion and I did Evie’s hair with a broken wrist, I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” He reaches for a brush. “And I’m not that drunk. Jay drank most of the vodka before I got my hands on it.”

Jane sighs. “Alright, do it before I lose my nerve.” Carlos bows with a flourish and starts working.

“Hey, Jane?” Jane hums and closes her eyes. “They’re not particularly careful with their names, are they?”

Jane thinks about the weight on her skin, about all the names in the palms of her hands, her clavicles, her hip bones, thinks about Aurora and her pale white skin, about Audrey and her sleeping pills. She says nothing.

“I mean - ”, Carlos undoes one of the buns he tied at the back of her head. He staggers slightly, “- when we first came here, Ben introduced himself with full name and title, and he shook all our hands. Audrey as well.” He reaches for his scissors. “Not that I’m particularly dangerous, but is it custom here to immediately strike deals with fairies one doesn’t know? Seems a bit rushed.”

“How do you know that?”

Carlos shrugs. “I grew up with – please don’t move your head or everything’s gonna be uneven – I grew up with Maleficent ruling the dump, didn’t I?” Jane opens her eyes again. Carlos is bent over her, a look of concentration on his face. “You learn pretty quickly that your name is one of the best secrets to keep.”

“So your name isn’t Carlos?” She cooks her head and Carlos moves it again.

“Please hold still. Oh no, it is, I’m already in so many contracts that it really doesn’t matter anymore.” He grins. “But did you really think the Evil Queen named her child Evie?”

“Nicknames, then?”

Carlos hums. “Nicknames, abbreviations, parts of it, parts of our parents’ names. Whatever we can offer, you know?”

Jane stares into the mirror. Suddenly her teeth feel ragged and sharp and the acid in her mouth tastes like blood.

Carlos runs his brush through her hair. “It’s not like that here, huh?”

“Mother says I shouldn’t take their words at face value. They don’t know what they do.”

“Does it matter?”

Jane thinks of Lonnie and her laugh, of her hair and all the magic she watched seep out of it with every hug. “No”, she says. “I guess not.”

“I mean, I always thought that fae don’t care much if the contract was entered willingly or not. A contract’s a contract and if someone is stupid enough to get themselves stuck in one, so be it.”

“We’re good fairies”, Jane says and thinks of her mother’s old worn face and the wand, hidden away behind glass and alarms, and how it feels in her hands.

Carlos shrugs. “Jay always says magical creatures aren’t good or bad, those are human standards.”

“We can try”, Jane says and watches as her hair falls to the ground.

“Jane, you’ll break if you don’t start doing something with those names. Mal is already up the wall, and she actually uses what she is offered.”

Jane says nothing and looks at her ears, pointed and fae and inhuman and hers. Carlos smiles at her.

 

* * *

“Jane, what’s that on your back?” Lonnie’s hands are on Jane’s skin before she can answer and she feels the air leave her lungs. Lonnie takes a step back. “Oh fuck, sorry”, she says and Jane’s magic gathers in her mouth. Her skin tingles.

“I’m going to leave you alone, I -” Lonnie’s voice moves further away and Jane sighs.

“I’m growing wings”, she says. “I have been since I turned fourteen.”

“Is it normal for them to be so - ”

“Shrivelled up? Small?” Jane shakes her head and turns around, her shirt still in her hands. “No. I shouldn’t be covering them in clothes, but I can only go to school here until they start growing and Mom doesn’t want anyone to notice.”

Lonnie furrows her brows. “So you’d be going to another school?”

Jane shakes her head. “No. That’s the thing. He’d stick me with Fauna, Flora and Merryweather to entertain tourists. Or if I’m lucky I get to only have them cut off.”

“That’s cruel.”

“It’s Auradon. That’s what we do.”

Lonnie takes a step towards her. “Can you spread them?”

Her hair is longer now, but all the magic has flown out of it, it is thick and black again, the captain’s whistle rests on her chest and Jane thinks about the weight in her clavicle and her freezing, screaming magic and smiles. “I’ve never tried. Help me?”

Lonnie’s hands are cool against her fluttering wings as she helps her unfold them and Jane’s magic wraps itself around her and her name. The weight in Jane’s clavicle sinks into her rib cage.


End file.
